No death penalty for Snowden if convicted, US says WASHINGTON (AP) — Striving to get Edward Snowden back to America, U.S., Attorney General Eric Holder has assured the Russian government the U.S. has no plans to seek the death penalty for the former National Security Agency systems analyst. In a letter dated Tuesday, the attorney general said the criminal charges Snowden now faces in this country do not carry the death penalty and the U.S. will not seek his execution even if he is charged with...

Green paint splattered on DC’s Lincoln Memorial WASHINGTON (AP) — Someone splattered green paint on the Lincoln Memorial early Friday, but the statue of the 16th president was reopened by nightfall after the paint was washed away. The apparent vandalism was discovered around 1:30 a.m. Friday on the statue, the pedestal and the floor, U.S. Park Police said. No words, letters or symbols were visible in the paint. The marble Lincoln statute had green paint on its shin, coattail, chair and base...

Southern states gird for new fight on voter laws AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Stricter voter identification laws, redrawn political maps fortifying Republican majorities, reducing early voting: States with GOP strongholds intensified these efforts under President Barack Obama and proclaimed victory at the Supreme Court. Now the Obama administration is signaling plans to drag some of these mostly Southern states with histories of minority discrimination into rematches after the high court knocked dow...

Mysterious giant magnet attracts rock-star status GLEN ELLYN, Ill. (AP) — It skipped tolls. It had a Twitter hashtag and a GPS tracker. It even posed for photos with groupies. The 50-foot-wide, 15-ton electromagnet attracted a sensation wherever it went during its slow, delicate 3,200-mile journey from New York to suburban Chicago. The land-and-sea trip culminated when scientists threw a rock star’s welcome for the mysterious, shrink-wrapped cargo on Friday as it arrived at the Fermi National...

Manning arguments wrap up; judge to deliberate FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s fate was in the hands of a military judge Friday after nearly two months of conflicting portrayals of the soldier: a traitor who gave WikiLeaks classified secrets for worldwide attention and a young, naive intelligence analyst who wanted people to know about the atrocities of war. Judge Col. Denise Lind started deliberating on the 21 charges Manning faces, but she did not say when she would ru...

Obese inmate spared from execution dies in Ohio COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio inmate whose 450-pound weight became an issue in his death penalty case has died seven months after being granted clemency, officials said Friday. Ronald Post died Thursday morning at a prison hospital where he’d been treated on and off since 2011, a state prisons spokeswoman said. He was a week shy of his 54th birthday. Post was sentenced to death for killing Elyria motel clerk Helen Vantz on Dec. 15, 1983. His a...

US seeks transfer of 2 Gitmo detainees to Algeria WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is planning to transfer two Guantanamo Bay detainees to Algeria, the first movement of terrorist suspects from the prison since the president announced a renewed push to close the contentious military-run facility in Cuba. The White House said Friday it was starting the transfers as part of President Barack Obama’s goal to close the prison, a campaign promise that has eluded him since he took office. ...

Texas oilman, fracking pioneer Mitchell dies at 94 HOUSTON (AP) — George P. Mitchell leveraged a penchant for hard work, an appetite for risk and dogged persistence in the face of futility into a technological breakthrough that reshaped the global energy industry and made the wildcat oilman a billionaire. Mitchell, the developer and philanthropist who also is considered the father of fracking, doggedly pursued natural gas he and others knew were trapped in wide, thin layers of rock deep underg...

War’s US legacies: permanent troops and 7,900 MIAs WASHINGTON (AP) — Sixty years after it finished fighting in Korea, the U.S. is still struggling with two legacies that are reminders of the costs — political, military and human — that war can impose on the generations that follow. The first is the leading role that America still is committed to playing in defending South Korea should the 1950-53 Korean War reignite. Washington has tried for years to wean its ally, South Korea, off its depende...

Ariel Castro pleads guilty in Ohio kidnap case CLEVELAND (AP) — A man accused of imprisoning three women in his home and subjecting them to rapes and beatings for a decade avoided the death penalty Friday, pleading guilty in a deal that will keep him in prison for life. “The captor is now the captive,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said of 53-year-old Ariel Castro. The women’s escape from Castro’s home two months ago at first brought joy to the city where they had become household...

Afghan insurgents find new opening for IED attacks WASHINGTON (AP) — The shrinking U.S. combat role in Afghanistan has given insurgents an opening to devise and carry out deadlier attacks using bigger improvised bombs against U.S. and coalition military vehicles and bases, American officials say. With fewer U.S. forces patrolling road networks beyond their bases — and with the grounding of eye-in-the-sky surveillance balloons known as aerostats — Taliban fighters are adapting their tactics, ac...

Feds: Halliburton agrees to plead guilty in spill NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Halliburton Energy Services has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence in connection with the 2010 Gulf oil spill, the Department of Justice said Thursday. Federal officials said in a news release that a criminal information charging Halliburton with one count of destruction of evidence was filed in federal court in Louisiana. Halliburton has agreed to pay the maximum fine, be on probation for three years and continue...

Admiration, puzzlement over Weiner’s loyal spouse NEW YORK (AP) — When Huma Abedin first started getting media attention years ago, some people couldn’t help but wonder what this beautiful, ambitious woman with high-fashion sense and a world-class Rolodex saw in Anthony Weiner. That’s a question New Yorkers might be asking themselves again after revelations that Weiner, now a candidate for mayor of New York, didn’t immediately give up his habit of sending sexual pictures and messages to femal...

Claims against mayor inflict turmoil on San Diego SAN DIEGO (AP) — The news release intended to project an air of normalcy: “Forward with City Business!” exclaimed the announcement Mayor Bob Filner put out last week with some upbeat photos showing the mayor reviewing plans for a new library, smiling at a gay pride parade and celebrating at an office birthday party. But “normal” San Diego is not these days — not with talk of unwanted advances, groping and headlocks, and comparisons of Filner t...

Muted after 9/11, NSA critics find their voice WASHINGTON (AP) — After 9/11, there were no shades of gray. There are plenty now. The vigorous debate over the collection of millions of Americans’ phone records, underlined by a narrow House vote upholding the practice, buried any notion that it’s out of line, even unpatriotic, to challenge the national security efforts of the government. Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, joined in common cause against the Obama administr...

Starting high school later may help sleepy teens NEW YORK (AP) — Quinn Cooney of Mill Creek, Wash., is excited about starting high school in September, but she’s not looking forward to waking up at 5:30 a.m. to arrive on time. Classes for ninth-graders start at 7:30 a.m., 45 minutes earlier than they did in middle school. “I think it is going to be harder to get up,” said Quinn, 13. “I do think it is better to start early so that we can be finished early and do things after school, but I am ...

Striking back against court’s Voting Rights ruling WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration opened an aggressive new front in the battle over voter protection Thursday, singling out Texas for legal action and promising broader efforts to come after last month’s Supreme Court ruling that wiped out a major provision of the Voting Rights Act. It was the administration’s first legal response to counter the justices’ 5-4 decision, but Attorney General Eric Holder pledged that “it will not be our ...

Obama says GOP opposition to debt limit ’deadbeat’ JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Setting up an impending new fight over the federal budget, President Barack Obama on Thursday accused Republicans of acting like a “deadbeat” by refusing to raise the government’s borrowing cap without spending cuts. Obama made his third campaign-like stop of a two-day swing to refocus debate on the economy at the Jacksonville Port Authority, where he accused House Republicans of “constant gridlock or my way or the hi...

New health insurance markets: Not like Travelocity WASHINGTON (AP) — You may have heard that shopping for health insurance under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul will be like using Travelocity or Amazon. But many people will end up with something more mundane than online shopping, like a call to the help desk. Struggling with a deadline crunch, some states are delaying online tools that could make it easier for consumers to find the right plan when the markets go live on Oct. 1. A...

SAC’s history: Dazzling success, dubious actions Even in the high-flying hedge fund world, where vast pools of capital dart in and out of markets with billions at stake, SAC Capital has stood out for its audacity, ambition and mammoth returns. And it’s impossible to discuss SAC Capital without invoking Steven A. Cohen, the firm’s founder and guiding hand. The firm, which was hit with criminal insider trading charges Thursday, bears his initials in its name and his imprint on its business. Co...